From today's News & Observer.....
go to:
http://www.newsobserver.com/tuesday/news/triangle/Story/402335p-401791c.html
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Budget vise pinches Durham library's services
Postponed book purchases and shorter hours at some branches are among
the effects.
By BARBARA BARRETT, Staff Writer
DURHAM --Jean Bradley Anderson figures she rummages through the North
Carolina room at the Durham County library downtown several times a
month.
A free-lance historian and genealogist, Anderson savors the old
wills, property records and historic maps that line the room on the
library's top floor. But
when Anderson paid a visit to the room Sunday, she found a sign on
the door: Closed until further notice.
"To see it suddenly cut off, it's a terrible shock," said Anderson,
the author of "Durham County," a history published in 1990.
The state's budget crisis and its resulting cutbacks have forced the
Durham County library system to shutter its state archives room,
close community
branches early and postpone the purchase of new books.
The county's hiring freeze left 14 positions open, and library
officials had to shift employees to other areas, said Pam Jaskot, the
library's spokeswoman.
The actions will allow the library to save $380,000 and help Durham
County make up the $3.2 million shortfall caused by the state's
crisis.
But they also mean fewer services for library patrons.
"It's kind of stressful for the staff," Jaskot said. "They want to
provide the best service possible."
Three branches -- Northern Durham, Bragtown and Stanford L. Warren --
will drop evening hours on Thursdays, moving the day's closing time
to 6 p.m.
Librarians have stacks of cards listing book titles they want to add
to the collection. None will be bought until the county manager's
office approves the
library's long-range spending priorities.
At the top of the list are best sellers, award winners and
large-print books. The new John Grisham novel, published in early
February, squeaked in just
before the freeze took place, and the library has copies.
But mystery writer Sue Grafton and horror specialist Stephen King
both have novels coming out this spring that librarians want to buy.
"It's kind of hard to run a library without books," Jaskot said.
And tough to do research without a state archives room, added
Anderson, the historian. She said she often runs into other
genealogists exploring family
histories.
"Anything having to do with North Carolina is in that room," Anderson said.
"Just because the North Carolina librarian slot just happened, during
the freeze, to be open, they can't fill it," she said. "It was a
fluke. They should make
an exception."
The job, a senior position with a salary in the upper $20,000s, has
been open since November, and other reference librarians have tried
to fill in, Jaskot
said. The room must be supervised because the archive includes
valuable materials, she said.
To Anderson, the decision is a loss for genealogists in the region.
"It's like a drug addict that can't get the drugs," she said. "And
genealogy is like a drug."
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